- Developer Plans Affordable Housing for 20,000 Nigerians
The Managing Director, MeritAbode Nigeria Limited, Mr. Oludotun Oseni, has unveiled plans by the firm to improve access to homeownership for Nigerians.
Oseni, who spoke with our correspondent on the sidelines of a get-together for stakeholders of the firm, said the aspiration of an average low income earner was to own a home, hence the need to help make the dream come to reality.
“Our long-term goal is to make sure that averagely, Nigerians have houses of their own; our population increases per second so imagine in the next 10 years what will happen? Our target is to provide housing for more than 20,000 Nigerians,” he stated.
Oseni said the firm, which developed the Emerald Garden City in Shimawa, Mowe, Arepo, Lusada Agbara, Ikorodu and Ibeju Lekki in Ogun and Lagos states, among others, began operations without support from the banks or the government but had gained the confidence of the investing public through consistency.
He added, “Nigerians believe in buying trust; if you can give them what they want, they will keep coming back, so that made it easy for us to stay in business even during the recession. The Nigerian market is purely a retail market and if you are a businessman, you must understand the market you’re playing in.
“Whether recession or no recession, the Nigerian market is still largely based on retail. What we did during that period was to play in the low income earning class, even though we have products that cut across all segments of the economy. But we have the bulk of the people in the low income bracket.
“For us to be always liquid, we can’t neglect the low income earners. Those who were really affected by the recession were those playing in the high-end market, most of those who patronise them are politicians but we play within the lower end of the pyramid, the average Nigerians. With no bank or market support, everything we get is from the market, where we started small and grew.”
Oseni said following the industry growth projections for this year, the firm had repositioned to take advantage of the boom.
